I know of at least one that is closing entirely rather than going dark because of the mod load that will be imposed by stripping tools. Wonder if they'll try to spin it back up too.
Yeah there's quite a few saying they're permanently closing (either in general, or until api fees are rolled back). Though I have to imagine that if the protest goes on too long, reddit admins/staff will just force the sub open like they did for... I think it was /r/adviceanimals? Admins are not strangers to admin/mod abuse and forcing their way into a subreddit's management. It's understandable since it's their site, but still kinda fucked up.
I recall spez also abusing his admin powers by silently editing someone else's comment to say something that is opposite to their post and what they believe (yet it wasn't marked as edited and looked like they were directly saying it). It was super fucked up.
Reddit admins are absolute garbage, and I have no doubt they'd abuse their powers to force subs open if it starts hurting.
If it's a big sub, reddit staff/admins will just force it open themselves, no need for a request. The request system doesn't work if the owner of the sub is still active on reddit, even if they privated the sub. For example, I have /r/potemkinvillage and turned it private. But since I'm still active on reddit, no one can request the sub. If I end up leaving reddit for a long enough time, then someone can eventually request it.
But for large subs? Admins will just abuse power, kick mods out, open the sub back up for sure.
But what's their endgame? They are booting thousands of people who are providing free work, and moderation is going to be even harder at the end of the month. Who is dumb enough to replace the current mods right now?
That's probably what will happen with the big ones. On the other hand, I think that action would also show how Reddit has lost the thread of what makes their community valuable.
I wouldn't mind getting the kind of people who are willing to keep the blackout going as moderators in some parts of the Fediverse, because they've been forced out of Reddit. I'm sure they'll find another place to ply their trade, so to speak :P
you say that like that's easy. Modding can be a royal pain (mods can be too, but that's another discussion) and it's not for most people, and since they're volunteers (volunteering for the profits of spez et al) it's not that simple.
I keep seeing that a lot are going to stay black indefinitely, which is awesome. I also read that a admin took away a head mods powers, and gave them to a lower mod, and then reopened the specific sub (which I currently don’t remember which, but it wasn’t small).
I feel like we will see a LOT more of the admins handing power over to the people who want power, or want to stay on Reddit and don’t care about any of the downsides/drama.
That did happen but it was a couple years ago over a blackout. Happens from time to time too with subs where the mods just quit or quit moderating. I haven’t heard of it happening this time yet but I wouldn’t put it past reddit doing it for one of the larger subs. Hard to search for now since there’s been some buzz about them doing it but afaik it hasn’t happened yet.
It's probably not just r/tumbler; the post from the r/tumbler mod is just the one that got any social media traction. I fully expect to see more of these from other mods of big subs going forward.
r/technology was staying open and didn't say a peep about the blackout. At some point it went private but it doesn't have some kind of message or reason as to why, unlike subs actively participating in the blackout. As it turns out, a reddit admin is currently top mod of r/technology and had been actively posting in an official reddit sub (could've been r/reddit) in defense of the API move during the end of last week. I think r/technology is a good sub to watch, just gonna leave it at that.
@Melpomene
I think point b) is incorrect, we just incorrectly assumed we are reddits userbase, reddits userbase are the advertisers that actually pay them, we are simply the products they believed they could milk more out of.
This would not be nearly the huge issue we are making it out to be if they actually designed a good in house interface, cut off the api access then slowly ramped up the ads, but it seems greed has gotten in the way and I hope they pay for their misstep dearly.
DO IT. Fuck /u/spez. Certainly reddit will eventually wind up just replacing the mods with their own compliant minions, but it is sure going to draw even more negative press.
Good -- I hope they do. But more than that, I hope that the userbase doesn't return.
I don't care if they choose kbin/Lemmy/Squabbles(?)/Pr0nhub Comment section/Whatever or a combination of those things -- but I hope they don't return to Reddit.
This is an exciting new opportunity for the internet, imo. Why rely on a single point of failure?
At this point I hope this blackout stays in place until they reverse their decisions on everything and fire spez. If not I'm done with Reddit for good.
Kbin seems more than sufficient as a replacement to me.
The only things I'm missing on kbin are all features of Apollo, not Reddit, so there's literally ZERO reason for me to go back.
I'm sure it's just a massive influx of lurkers (and some users) along with not great server infra right now, but I'm dealing with 30s page loads and constant Cloudflare token refreshes. Still better than reddit.
I think it's because Kbin is like the most popular Fediverse-based reddit alternative and their server is overloaded. I imagine it'll get much better over the next week or so.
It's seen such a massive influx of traffic lately without the servers to effectively support it. It'll improve (I hope.) I already like it better here. Fuck reddit.
the subs themselves won't be gone. They're still there. Reddit'll just remove ownership of the subs and install mods that they approve of.
The only way to end reddit is to get the users gone. but 90% of users don't really care if 99% of the content is add driven or not. as long as they get their dopamine fix.
I was kind of hoping for a brief return between tomorrow and the end of the month for one last binge and so my old subs could share what platform they'd moved to. But so be it. This was going to happen eventually.
I am actively experimenting with both. First post here! I find lemmy/kbin has a huge potential, but bloated initial experience. (Was cloud flare really necessary?). While squabbles is light and easy to get into, but less overall potential.
Yeah, that is going to happen to all the bigger subs they think bring value to the site. They'll probably be some power hungry user in as mod and ruin the sub.
Yikes! That will only render the Reddit self-sabotage to be irreversible. It really has become morbidly entertaining watching Spez's overly fragile ego result in that site burning itself to the ground in such spectacular fashion over the last few days. If it wasn't for the third party app devs getting screwed over financially in the process after the rug was pulled from under them.
This place looks to be a silver lining to this whole saga at least. It definitely feels more homely over here with its throwbacks to how forums used to be. It feels like people can actually have a proper conversation again.
It really does feel good to not be constantly walking on eggshells out of fear of saying the 'wrong thing', or not agreeing with the subreddit's agenda (and holy FUCK is it nice not having to scroll past the first 30+ unfunny quippy replies to find a serious comment.) I'm honestly happy this all went down. Even if it doesn't kill the website (which I'm sure will be the case), they've shown their hand more than enough times now to the point longtime users like myself (12 years, personally) are unwilling to return. I like it here far more, and the overall concept is massively appealing to me.
Good. A two-day blackout was never going to accomplish much since Reddit could just wait it out. Still, the end result is probably going to be Reddit removing mods and trying to replace them in order to get the subreddits public again. That might end the blackout, but it's not really going to solve any of the problems that led to the blackout in the first place.
We'll have to see how much, but it's definitely added a lot more viability to Reddit's competitors. It did a lot more than I thought a two day blackout would.
It's probably because I'm younger on the internet, but this is the biggest and liveliest migration event I've ever seen! It might be successful to the point that it won't be just a Reddit alternative, but an entire thing of its own, and if not, I personally already find this my new home. The community is better here anyway
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